Brittle tips.. you can say that again i had one of those and it worked okay, it was still such a pain trying to get the solder and wire and everything to make contact with both sides then after i figured it out and it was working sorta okay the tip broke for no reason at all... 2 days after i got it!! so i took it apart and guess what.. its batterys hooked straight to the tip nothing else at all only other thing in there was an led...
I prefer a butane soldering iron 50 times over, just get a good one with a metel tank and it will last for years, i found one that 10 years old, it got used almost every day and it still works great, it was even completely full after sitting in storage 10 years.
As for the goggles there are goggles like that but it would be cheaper just to buy seperate ones for green and red.
...lazer... ;D ;D ;D